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GMC decides not to expand to 10 teams

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By TIM McDONOUGH

mcdonough@crescent-news.com

Members of the Green Meadows Conference met at Scotty's Club 111 south of Defiance on Thursday afternoon to vote on the possibility of adding two new members to the conference to compete across the board in athletics.

Principals representing the eight GMC schools (Antwerp, Ayersville, Edgerton, Fairview, Hicksville, Holgate, Tinora, Wayne Trace) cast secret ballots on whether or not to add Paulding and Edon High Schools into the conference to make it a 10-team league.

The results are in and the GMC voted not to expand to 10 teams at the present time. According to the constitution of the GMC, three-fourths of the schools or a total of six yes votes were needed for expansion.

According to current GMC president and Tinora High School principal Phil Nofziger, the league voted against expansion not because it was unhappy with either Paulding or Edon, but because it was comfortable with the eight members that it currently has now.

"After taking a lot of time to examine this process, I believe that the members of the GMC felt that they were comfortable continuing to be an 8-team league at the present time," said Nofziger. "Both Paulding and Edon made solid proposals as to why they wanted to be members of the GMC, but again, I think the members just felt more comfortable staying an 8-team league."

Nofziger went on to say that coming to the decision not to expand came after much discussion by the principals and athletic directors from every school in the conference.

"I know the principals met four or five times, the athletic directors met probably that many times and as a group we met four or five times before the vote yesterday (Thursday)," said Nofziger. "Obviously there was a lot of discussion on the matter before we took a vote.

"We looked at expansion from all ways," added Nofziger. "We didn't go out and seek membership for the GMC, so again, it just came down to being satisfied with how we are as a league right now. As far as future expansion, unless something changes, I don't think we'll be expanding in the near future."

Both Paulding and Edon applied for membership into the GMC last spring, with both making formal proposals to join the conference last summer. Paulding is currently a member of the Northwest Conference, while Edon is a member of the Toledo Area Athletic Conference in football and in the Buckeye Border Conference in all other sports.

Paulding athletic director Chris Etzler stated that Paulding had several reasons for wanting to join the GMC and he admitted to being disappointed at hearing the news of the no vote.

"I think for us, we thought that joining the GMC would be a good fit," said Etzler. "Geographically, we already play several of the schools in the league like Wayne Trace, Antwerp, Ayersville and some others in many sports. After studying the numbers, we felt that travel-wise it would cut our (athletic) budget in half. Those were really the main ideas for wanting to join the GMC.

"I don't know if we or Edon could have done anything else for the existing members to vote differently, and I guess it's a situation where the existing members just didn't think we were a good fit," continued Etzler. "I'm disappointed, but we will move forward."

When asked if Paulding would ever apply to join the GMC again, Etzler wasn't sure.

"I don't know if the GMC constitution states if we can (apply) again or not," said Etzler. "I guess we'll just have to see what happens."

Edon athletic director Don Walton was also disappointed that the GMC voted not to expand at this time, but felt that Edon was in a good position no matter how the vote turned out.

"We're disappointed, but we felt that no matter what happened we were in a win-win situation," said Walton. "Our biggest reason for wanting to join the GMC was to have all of our sports in one league instead of football in one league and all our other sports in another. But we knew that if they did vote no, we're still in a good situation with the TAAC and the BBC.

"I don't think anybody is upset, but I guess we'll always wonder why," added Walton. We already play a lot of the GMC schools in a lot of sports anyway. But I'm sure the GMC considered all the factors, and we know that being a small school like we are probably was a sticking point.

Walton also admitted that leaving the BBC would have been difficult.

"We would have been sad to leave the BBC because we've been a member for so long," concluded Walton. "To be honest it bothered us quite a bit to think that we would have left the BBC with just five schools so staying in the BBC is really a positive for us. Again, our big reason for wanting to join the GMC was having all of our sports in one league."